


Girl Talk

by Laurel_Writes



Series: Meryl and Maks after DWTS [1]
Category: Maksyl - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Sex Education
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 01:19:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2528741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurel_Writes/pseuds/Laurel_Writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While enjoying a day at the beach, thinking Maks is asleep, Jenna asks Meryl some questions about relationships and sex.</p><p>This is a work of fiction, and while the characters share the names of and are inspired by real people, I know nothing about them but the limited information obtained from watching them on television or reading articles about them. The events in this story almost certainly never happened, and if they did it would be complete coincidence!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girl Talk

Girl Talk

It was a glorious afternoon: not too hot, since the breezes from the frigid Pacific freshened the air, and the beach was surprisingly deserted for a Friday afternoon. After playing in the water and chasing each other around on the sand, they were relaxing on their towels. Jenna and Meryl rubbed sunscreen onto each other's bodies, and when they turned around, they saw that Maks was already asleep.

The young women stretched out on their towels, hats shading their faces, but soon Jenna started to fidget. "Something bothering you, Jenna?" Meryl asked.

Jenna sighed and said, "Not really...nothing important."

"Come on, you can tell me. That one is sawing logs, and you know you can trust me."

"Well, it's just, when I see you and him together, how he treats you as so special, like, like a queen, I guess people would say. And I just wonder why—I' d like to find a man who treats me that way, but so far, that hasn't been what it's like at all. I mean, they seem super nice at first, you know? But then it goes downhill in one way or another."

"Funny, we never talked about this in Hawaii. I don't even know—how many guys have you dated?" Meryl asked.

"I wasn't really thinking about it then. I was so happy to be on Dancing, and it was such a great season for me. And, to be honest, I was more interested in watching your relationship with Maks, and Charlie and Tanith getting engaged."

Meryl waved her hat at Jenna. "Just a voyeur; eh? Or should it be voyeuse?"

Jenna laughed. "Just call me the perv. Anyway, I met a guy over the summer, and it was the same, asking me out, flowers, moonlit walk on the beach. But once we—uh, got more physical, it was like he wasn't that interested anymore. Just some panting and pushing, and then roll over and watch TV, you know?"

Meryl stared up into the sky for a few moments, and then she said, "I don't really know—I feel super close to you in some ways, but we've both been kind of private about sex. And if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But I think—not that I'm all that experienced, either, but I am older than you, and maybe—"

She didn't have to finish the trailing sentence before Jenna jumped in. "Well, see, that's the thing. You know I'm Mormon, and of course they don't want you to do anything before you're married, and then you're supposed to settle down and have a dozen kids. Not that my folks were that way—they're a little more modern and enlightened. But I think it's not just Mormon kids who sort of pick and choose from their religion. I don't see that it's so bad to have sex before you're married, and what if it were really horrible and you had made vows and everything?"

"So how much—uh, how many—"

"I've only gone all the way with three guys," Jenna replied, anticipating the question and wanting to spare Meryl embarrassment.

Meryl suppressed a grin at the high school term. She wasn't that much older, though, and this was important. "So, and how did you like it?"

"To be honest, I wondered what all the fuss was about. I enjoyed the kissing, and I guess what you'd call petting, and I felt—the way you're supposed to feel, but when it came to the actual—act, it was kind of a letdown"

"You mean you didn't climax?" Meryl asked, trying to sound casual.

"Yeah, I've read about it and it's supposed to be all fireworks and the earth moving and all that, but—"

"Jenna, this may feel a little embarrassing, but I can't really go anywhere with this if you don't tell me. Do you masturbate?"

Jenna got a little pink in the face, but said "Well, uh, sure. I feel a little guilty, but doesn't everyone?"

"Ah, good, then you know what an orgasm feels like; right?"

"Is it supposed to be like that when you have sex with a guy?" Jenna asked.

"Well, yes and no. It can be even better than that, but at least it should be that good. Here's the thing, though, and excuse me going into science lecturer mode. This is kind of the irony of biology, because guys can have orgasms fairly easily, whereas women need a little special—expertise to get one from a man. On the other hand, nature sort of evens out the balance by making women multi-orgasmic and men not."

"What does that even mean?" asked Jenna.

"Well, after a guy has an orgasm, he's kind of over and out for a while. He needs a certain amount of recovery time—I don't know, maybe 15 minutes when he's really young to I don't know how long if he's older. It’s called, um, refractory period, I think."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I guess I learned it in biology at some point my freshman or sophomore year at MU, but what I remember better is this kind of pornographic book—by today's standards it would probably be considered pretty harmless, but when I was a kid it was something you read furtively and passed around to your friends. It was called _Moll Flanders_ , by Daniel Dafoe."

"The Robinson Crusoe guy?" Jenna asked, her eyes wide. "He wrote porn?"

"Well, soft porn, maybe. The heroine was a woman who was a prostitute at one point in her life, and I remember this scene where she and her client would play chess after they had sex, to pass the time until he was ready to have an erection again." Meryl chuckled. "Don't know why that mental picture stayed with me, but it did."

"So, what's this about women and multiple orgasms?" Jenna persisted.

"Well, first of all, it's easy for a man to have an orgasm and achieve ejaculation because all the nerve endings that are involved are on the outside. All he needs is some friction and maybe a little lubrication, and he's good to go. But women, the most sensitive spot that leads to an orgasm is on the inside, and it's not all around the vagina, but just kind of on the top wall or rather, the front if you're standing up. You can rub on it from the outside, and the clitoris and whatever other spot might be involved can be stimulated that way, but the point is, it's not enough for a guy to just stick his penis in and pump it in and out. You have to pretty much target the specific spot. I don't know a lot about the theories, but I do know they've changed over time and of course most of the scientists who studied this were men, so, believe it or not, in the past they seriously thought that women didn't even _have_ orgasms, and later that there were two kinds—vaginal and clitoral—and the vaginal kind was somehow superior. That's what some men wanted you to think, anyhow."

"Wow, just sticking it in and pumping would just about describe it, too!" Jenna said. Her face had returned to its normal color, and she sat back, crossing her legs as she meditated on what Meryl had said.

"So, I know you were asking about how a man treats you, and let me just say I'm not talking about anyone specific here, and I've heard things from sorority sisters, as well, so this isn't personal erotic revelation time, but just as an example, normally women don't have that waiting period that men have to go through—they could just go on having orgasm after orgasm until they got tired of it, or maybe their muscles would start to get sore. So, first off, a man who cares about you and isn't just ignorant will make an effort to get you to climax along with him, at the very least. And a man who is super generous will give you more than one climax, just because he can, and because his pleasure is enhanced when you are experiencing a lot of pleasure."

"But what if he _does_ care about me but just doesn't know?"

Meryl drew up her knees and crossed her arms in front of them. "I suppose that's the hard part, because in that case you're going to have to tell him. It's weird, but sometimes it seems easier to just have sex with someone than to talk to them about it. But in a way that's kind of a test, too. Because if you don't feel comfortable telling him what you need or want sexually, why would you even think about having sex with him?"

"So," Jenna summarized, "If he just pumps away at you and doesn't seem to care about whether you come or not, he's either selfish, or he just doesn't—doesn’t know what he needs to know."

"That seems safe to say. Now, with the guys you have been with, do you think you can tell which ones were which?"

Jenna thought for a moment, kneading her fingers together. "The first and last ones, I think, just didn't care. You could tell because they seemed to lose interest in me the minute they lost—you know, their horniness. The second guy, he wasn't that way, but I think he was also pretty shy and inhibited. He came from a Mormon family too."

"So do you think" Meryl continued, "you could have asked him to touch you in a certain way, or showed him where your sensitive spot was?"

"I'm not sure, but not because he didn't like me enough. I just think his feelings were so mixed about having sex at all—like he felt guilty, and when it was done, it was like he blamed me instead of feeling good about it."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

At first Maks thought he was dreaming—a pleasantly erotic dream. He could hear Meryl’s voice saying, "So, if you can even imagine telling a guy he needs to rub and massage your clitoris with his fingers, or—have you heard the term 'to go down on someone?'"

Maks felt a twitch inside his bathing trunks, but then he heard Jenna's voice, which had a sudden, deflating effect. "What the f—?" he thought.

"People really do that? Is that like a blow job?" she was asking.

Meryl laughed in that way he loved, and he went from wondering whether he was dreaming to believing he might be in heaven.

"No, well, yeah, it's like a blow job for a woman. The man puts his face down between your legs and uses his lips and tongue, like a French kiss, but at the entrance to your vagina and your clitoris. It's just one of many ways to give a woman an orgasm, or just to get her excited—you know, foreplay. Or he can use his fingers, or there are—uh, toys and stuff."

All at once Maks was fully awake. Shit. Meryl had once called him a "perfect gentleman." But a perfect gentleman would definitely not eavesdrop on a very intimate conversation between two young women. How could he possibly fix this? Pretend to continue sleeping? No, that was unacceptable. He already had heard more than he should and God knew he didn't want to learn any more about Jenna's sex life.

After he thought for a minute, Maks gave a quiet snort and shook his head, as though startled awake, just as he heard Meryl say, "So, I think if a guy is really into you, if he really cares about you, he'll want to give you as much pleasure as he can, and he'll be open to your telling him if he doesn't already know. But if you don't feel comfortable talking to him about it, or he insists on just doing it his way—though it is something you'd ideally find out before it got to that point—" she broke off, then said, "You might need to discuss it at the same time you talk about how far you want the relationship to go and whether to use a condom, you know?"

Maks snorted again, louder, then stretched his arms and sat up in a slightly exaggerated way.

“Excuse me, ladies—I know it's rude to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help overhearing what Meryl was telling you, Jenna, though I didn't hear which of your friends you were talking about so, no worries. But—"

He got off his towel and moved it over to sit between them so that they formed triangle. Putting his arm around Meryl's shoulders and giving her a quick kiss on the temple, he continued, "—from a guy's perspective, you should warn your friend that men who don't care about the woman's orgasm—they're not just selfish, but if you complain they will act like it's your fault. They'll tell you you're frigid, or you're frozen. Which is a load of bull, because only a very tiny percentage of women are actually frigid. But it's almost a kind of abuse, because they try to make you feel less of a woman by blaming you for their own failure to be generous and loving."

"Wow," Jenna said. "At least the—my friend's boyfriend never did that! That's just ugly!"

"I know, and it's so self-defeating, too, because word gets around, and who wants to go to bed with a man who doesn't want to give a woman pleasure? I can't understand it." Maks shook his head, trying to maintain a serious, neutral expression, while internally grinning.

"So, Maks, do you—oh, never mind, I'm not even sure I want to go there. It's personal," Jenna apologized.

"I don't mind, I'm not embarrassed to talk about sex. But my pops taught both of us—Val and me—early on to treat especially women really well, because an unhappy woman can make your life miserable, whether it's your mom or a girl on the dance floor. No, seriously, I'm sort of joking about that, because what he really taught us was to respect women. You know my mom doesn't have a career like some, but make no mistake, she holds our family together. And when you love someone, you want to make her feel special. So if I have a choice to just stick to basic sex with a little foreplay appetizer, or completely blow her mind a couple of times before I think about my own pleasure or, preferably, our pleasure with each other, why would I not do it? The better you make a woman feel, the better you feel!"

"So, Maks, why do you think more men don't see it the way you do?" Meryl asked, looking out at the ocean. She was wearing her sunhat, and he couldn't see her eyes, but he sensed she was thinking of someone specific.

"I honestly don't know. I think some men see themselves as liking women, but really they are more ambivalent. They like to look at them and have them around and want to have sex with them, but they also resent them or maybe it's something more like fear. I don't know much about psychology—only had a kind of basic intro during my brief time in college—but it almost feels like they're still resentful of their mother's authority over them. Women may be smaller, and many of them may be physically weaker than men, but in a lot of ways they are really the strong ones. And some men—again, I can’t say why—enjoy the chase—attracting a woman’s attention, getting her to agree to go out with him, then to go to bed. But once they have her, and the chase is over, they get bored.”

Maks looked at Jenna and smiled. “I don’t know what’s wrong with guys like that. A woman like you, or Meryl, you are so much more than a trophy or a point in a scoring game. A man who doesn’t want to treat you like a queen isn’t much of a man, in my opinion—even if he doesn’t fall in love with you. But I’ll can share something else. I can tell when a woman has only ever been with that kind of a man before." He took Meryl's hand and added, "Meryl, sorry to mention this, but you know I had some experience before you."

"Of course," she reassured him, "don't be ridiculous, that's not even an issue.”

"Well, not so much in the last few years, but when I was younger I would see, sometimes—I'd have been going out with a woman, and we would get to the point where we're kissing, and I'm touching her breasts and, you know, all the things you do when you're planning to make love, and she is aroused and excited, but then you get to the moment when you are actually going to—well, have penetration, and suddenly her body gets a little stiff, and her face changes, and it's like she's steeling herself for something unpleasant she just wants to get over with. And then I know she's been with one of those men who doesn't care."

"That’s so sad," Jenna said. "Gosh, what if you married a guy like that?"

"I can't imagine," Maks said. "Of course, back then I didn't know what I know now, but even then I hope that the experience turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the girls—for the women I was with."

"But what about—my, uh, friend was wondering how you meet a man who really thinks you are special, and not just somebody good-looking he can get into bed?" Jenna looked at Maks doubtfully, as though skeptical he would have an answer, or even have an interest in the question.

"Jenna, I never thought about it before, but probably, when a woman is as good-looking as you, I can see how she might attract some guys for the wrong reasons. And your friend, if she's that attractive, too, it's all the more reason to be careful. I'm no expert on these things, but I have a whole series of failed relationships behind me, some of which were pretty public. And every time it goes wrong, you can't help but think about why—why it didn't work out. And I figured out a few things: like, if you have to talk yourself into wanting to be with that person, and you ignore the things that should make you go, 'hmmm," like maybe he's all over you and telling you he loves you when you really haven't gotten to know each other yet, or—the opposite—if you are going to a lot of effort trying to get the other person to be more interested in you, then maybe those things should tell you that guy's not the one for you."

Maks put an arm around Meryl and kissed her cheek, then he took her hand in both of his and rested them on his knee. "With Meryl, you know, I wasn't even looking. I had seen her skate on television, of course, along with millions of people, and maybe I even had a little celebrity crush on her, but when she walked into the room, it was like I recognized her—I didn't see it as love, not then, but I felt us connect. I didn't scheme or plan, and I doubt she did, either. It just— _was_ , it became—it sounds cliché, but it was like we knew each other from an earlier life. So that makes me think the best way to find love is not to go looking for it, but to live your best life, doing what you love or deeply need to do—like you feel about your dancing, Jenna, and your friend—whatever she is passionate about, she should just continue to do it, and someone who is capable of loving her for what she is, of understanding and cherishing her, will show up on her path."

Then Meryl spoke up. "But your friend, Jenna, might be setting herself up for disappointment if she expects someone to treat her like Maks treats me. Not that she should compromise on respect and kindness and caring, but there's an extra layer of—maybe you could call it gallantry, or chivalry, that Maks, and to some extent Val, acquired as part of the whole culture of the ballroom. Tony has it, too. But I can't remember my dad ever running around the car to open the door for my mother, or kissing her hand, like Maks does. People can show they feel you are special in different ways. Like my dad _does_ notice when Mom's getting chilly, say, when we're sitting in the backyard, and he'll disappear into the house without making a fuss, and he'll come back with her shawl or a sweater and drape it around her shoulders. And she gets up every morning, even on days when she doesn't have to go to work, and makes him lunch. And it's not to save money or anything like that—he could afford to eat out at a nice place every day. It's because she knows what he likes and she wants to make sure he gets it, and it's just a way to show him every day that she cares about him."

"So you're saying not to expect the knight in shining armor, or the 'perfect gentleman'?" Jenna asked.

"I'm saying different people show their feelings in different ways. It's not one size fits all. And it's not a competition, like each person should only give exactly 50 percent. People who really care about each other will each give 100 percent, just maybe not all at the same time or in the same way."

"That's another thing about these—about the guys my friend has been dating," Jenna said. "She sometimes feels she's putting in all the effort, and after the first big 'sweep her off her feet' phase, he just does his thing and expects her to come to him, or take the initiative, or do whatever work may be involved."

"Jenna, your friend deserves better. She'll be happier alone than with someone who doesn't appreciate her," Meryl reassured her friend. "Right, Maks?"

"Absolutely. You are an amazing person, Jenna—you should never doubt that. And you--and your friend if she's anything like you--shouldn't have too long to wait before someone comes into your life who truly treasures you for what you are, and he'll knock himself out to keep you happy. But, girls,"he added, looking at his watch, "I hate to be a party pooper, only it's getting chilly, and we might want to head back before the traffic gets crazy."

Maks was more than ready to get Meryl home alone but wasn't sure, tactically, how to manage it. He tried to catch her eye, but she and Jenna were fussing with putting their things away and chattering like birds. He fell into a small reverie, because he really did enjoy watching them and secretly found their friendship adorable, while teasing and making fun of them to their faces.

At the top of the stairs from the beach up to the highway, he finally managed to move alongside Meryl while they were loading the trunk and Jenna was getting into the back seat. "Meryl, I think you might have some studying to catch up on tonight; isn't that right?"

She looked at him, her eyebrows raised. "Studying?"

He gave her a wink, then averted his eyes as he leaned into the trunk to stash the cooler and the tote containing their beach towels. "You remember, multiple orgasms in females, oral stimulation—didn't you say you had an anatomy test coming up?"

"Ohhhh," she said, nodding. "You're right, I almost forgot."

Once they were in the car and Maks was turning the key, Jenna suggested, "It's still early—if you guys want to catch dinner somewhere, we could probably get in without reservations. Mexican, maybe?"

Meryl tried to repress slight feelings of guilt as she answered, "Sorry, Jenna, but I've been putting off studying for a test I have coming up. We're gonna have to head straight home and just scrounge for leftovers. Can we drop you?"

"Sure, my car's around the corner from Fratelli's. Maybe I'll just grab some takeout there."

“Sorry, Maks," Meryl said. "I should have told you before. Did you have anything special planned for tonight?"

"It is Friday, after all," Jenna said, adding in a suggestive tone, "date night."

"Every night we're together is date night," Maks replied, smirking. "No, seriously, babe, I have plenty of things to catch up on. I may do a little studying myself."

Meryl stifled a chuckle and said, "I'll try to be quick. Maybe we can still fit in a movie later on."

"I don't know," said Maks, "something tells me you're going to have to study pretty hard for this test."

**Author's Note:**

> Though this is a work of fiction, the problems "Jenna" is experiencing are real. Especially younger women may have trouble finding someone to discuss this with. Here is a pretty good article on the topic: 
> 
> http:[slash slash]www(dot)netdoctor(dot)co(dot) uk[slash]sex_relationships[slash]facts[slash]orgasmtrouble.htm


End file.
